If you’ve been using PCs for a while, you’re bound to have an old one you don’t use much, if at all. With 2-GHz computers available for well under $1,000, what good is an old 300-MHz Pentium II system? The answer depends on your willingness to experiment, have fun, learn, and prevent pollution. Here are ten things you can do with that old PC, starting with tasks for relatively “better” old PCs, and working our way down to the real junkers. [via] Link.
Remember Steve? He posted some time lapse videos of making a drill press and using a lathe to make a neat looking table leg out of scrap wood- now he’s posted how he does his time lapse movies on his site. We reviewed the software (Boinx iStopMoption) in issue of 02 of MAKE. Link.
Handy way of testing for dead pixels. So you just bought a superb ultra-flat 25″ LCD monitor, but it looks like there are a few ‘spots’ on it. Depending on how many and it’ll mean return to the vendor or live with it. Or you could be about to buy one in a store and want to make sure there aren’t any dead pixels Link.
Hopefully we can build apps around this (like Google Maps)…Today at “D” Conference in Carlsbad, CA, Microsoft founder Bill Gates presented his vision of MSN Virtual Earth, an exciting new component of Microsoft’s Search vision that gives consumers a deeply immersive search experience where they see what it’s like to be in a location and explore what they can do there. MSN Virtual Earth uses location as the way in which people interact with the information on the web so that they can more easily find, explore and plan activities relevant to that location. Link.
Is using an empty baked-bean can to grab a Wi-Fi signal from a mile away high technology? The answer is yes if you’re an entrant in Intel’s International Science and Engineering Fair being held this week in Phoenix. Steven Buss, an 18-year-old Wi-Fi buff from Palm City, Florida, built three different types of antennas to see which provided the greatest range for his wireless network Link.
I’ve been trying to download the premiere episode of SYSTM and so far it’s going good- if you use a client like Bits on Wheels you can watch all the transfers, clients as it happen. Here’s a quick video I made that shows my download/uplaod (2MB QuickTime MOV).
Out here it pays to be self sufficient: the nearest town is across the Rupununi river and down a gruelling four-wheel-drive track – about three hours away in the dry season, or about three days away in the wet. There’s no telephone, no mains electricity, no anything really. Except, surprisingly, broadband internet access, in all its glory. With a satellite dish outside the house, and electricity provided by solar panels and a current inverter, DeFreitas is possibly the world’s least likely internet nerd. [via] Link.
